


He Loves Them

by fledglingscreaming



Category: Naruto
Genre: Affection, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Asexual Uchiha Sasuke, Depression, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Kissing, Platonic Life Partners, Platonic Relationships, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, Sharing a Bed, Unconditional Love and Support™, Wholesome af, getting better, i have gone so far overboard w the tags here kids, naruto is probs p straight, queerplatonic, sakura is super gay, sasuke is aroace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 03:30:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11005056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fledglingscreaming/pseuds/fledglingscreaming
Summary: Sasuke isn't okay when he comes back home, so Sakura and Naruto take care of him. Their lives have always been tangled up in each other, so when the flow of things lead them where they are, it just feels like home.I just really needed some qp Team 7. Its platonic, but you could read it as a lil romantic probably if that's yo jam. background Hinata/Kiba and Ino/Sakura





	He Loves Them

**Author's Note:**

> this started as a short "imagine" prompt to my friend about naruto and sakura taking care of sasuke while he's dealing w depression, then i looked up and two hours had passed and it was suddenly a queerplatonic triad /sweats IN MY DEFENCE  
> i really really (reallyreallyreallyreally) love queerplatonic team 7
> 
> (sorry to ppl reading any of my blue exorcist stuff, I'm still getting back in the writing saddle, ill get there I promise)

Sasuke falls into a quite heavy depressive episode when he comes back and all the fugitive drama is sorted. Naruto had originally planned to let Sasuke live in his apartment until it was sorted, until he could find his own place. But Sasuke isn’t fit for that. The relief that comes with being allowed to come back, albeit under watchful eyes, it’s maybe too much at once. Without the conflict there to enforce his steely resilience he was left with his past to examine. And guilt. So much guilt.

He spends days at a time just lying in bed, not really able to do anything. He can’t take care of himself.

Sakura and Naruto take turns caring for him instead. Cleaning the place, preparing food, making sure he's eating the food. It’s hard to understand at first, hard to see him in complete shutdown. They keep him company, try to ease him out of it. Sakura gets advice from a medic-nin who deals with illness like this routinely.

It’s when Naruto’s about to leave for five minutes to go down to the store that Sasuke grabs his arm and quietly asks him to not leave. Naruto doesn’t. He stays, and climbs into bed with Sasuke. Sakura comes home to find them curled up together, soundly asleep. It becomes routine for both of them to join Sasuke in his bed at some vague point that no one can quite pin down.

Sasuke likes the physical comfort. He feels closer to being human.

Sometimes when they’re cuddling Sasuke will quietly apologise for a never-ending itemised list of wrongs he's committed since leaving the village and on better days he'll read something with Sakura, their legs thrown over one another’s, or laugh at dumb cartoons on the crummy little TV with Naruto resting against his side.

Mostly he's quiet, and that's okay, Naruto and Sakura know it'll take him some time to get better. They love him to bits, will take care of him however long they need to. Because he _is_ getting better, in his own time, and they're just glad he's back and that he's _letting_ them take care of him for once. Glad that he's home, that he's trying.

Naruto buys a slightly bigger bed, sleeping on the floor hasn’t been great for his back. When he even stays awake long enough to crawl out of the bed in the first place, which isn’t very often.

And it’s a good thing he did. Because Sakura moves most of her stuff in, lord knows she spends more time here than at her own house. It makes things easier with taking care of Sasuke anyway.

Naruto and Sakura take turns going on missions, because they do need money, so that Sasuke always has at least one of them home with him. When one of them goes on a longer mission (which they try to avoid but they just have to suck it up occasionally), Sasuke gets a little needier and clingier because he misses them _so much_ when they're not around it physically hurts. He apologises for needing them so much a lot.

He does get better, slowly but surely. He starts getting out of bed in the afternoon. He reads a bit, when he can focus.

Things are really beginning to look up when he manages to start doing some of the cleaning himself, and helping out with cooking meals for them all. Sometimes all three of them end up in the kitchen, laughing and bickering, Sakura yelling at the boys when they fling some of the ingredients or water at one another. Sasuke will peck them on the forehead or the cheek before he disappears to go lie down or read before dinner once he’s done his part.

It isn’t all that new. They’d often kiss his forehead as he drifted off to sleep, or while they calmed him through a panic attack or general breakdown. Sasuke loved kisses. But to see Sasuke so careless and open and not to mention _direct_ in his affection for anyone still took some adjustment. It was nice though.

Leaving the apartment is a little trickier, Sasuke’s anxious about the other villagers and what they think of him. Usually he'll wear a hat and non-descript civilian clothes – though his wardrobe is essentially just that anyway these days. It doesn't do too much to stop people recognising him, he grew up there and he was also super infamous for a while after all, but it makes him feel less recognisable and like he blends in with the crowd more.

Naruto knows to turn his volume down and try not to draw too much attention to them when they're out together. When Naruto goes up to registers to pay, Sasuke hangs back a bit. It's a little easier being out with just Sakura, she healed a lot of very thankful people in the war and does get recognised here and there, but she doesn't stand out nearly as much as Naruto.

Either way, Sasuke likes holding their hands, feeling the warmth and being grounded, reassured this is _real_. That they are truly there and that they love him enough to ‘put up with his shit’.

It's best when all three of them are out together, because Naruto _and_ Sakura are _there_ and he can hold _both_ their hands, though he does prefer to be as discreet as possible about it.

In the end Sasuke is more or less himself again, he even regained a bit of his confidence. He's mellower and definitely not as cocky and arrogant, he sees those traits as a large part of what lead him down the path he went down and vehemently discourages them. Mostly he just takes care of their apartment and becomes a bit of a housewife. He’s happy with this, and he gets to greet Naruto and Sakura when they come home, taking care of them like they always take care of him.

Eventually Naruto goes on to become Hokage, much to the relief of Kakashi. They’re really scraping by on money at this point, and Sakura starts really working at the hospital. Not before making sure Sasuke was really okay to be on his own all day of course, which he mostly is.

She takes a week of leave at one point when she comes home to find Sasuke curled in a ball on the bathroom floor, naked and still wet from the shower, shivering violently admits his body-wracking sobbing. He insisted he didn’t know _why_ he’d broken down like that. One minute the damn hot-water tap wouldn’t budge and the next he was shivering on the cold tiles and everything was just too much. She decided to believe him. She also thoroughly investigated him when she came home each night for almost a whole month.

It’s Sakura’s idea to save up some money together and move into a bigger house. Naruto’s old apartment is nice and all, but it’s beginning to get cramped with all three of them stuffing their belongings into boxes in corners of the one-room affair. They decided on one of the big family homes being built just outside the business district, definitely not misusing Naruto’s new Hokage status to ‘reserve’ one until they could pay for it and move in.

Sasuke gets a bit lonely with his friends gone all day and not having much to do, but it's nice making sure they – meaning Naruto – eats breakfast, kissing them both goodbye and wishing them a good day. And late in the evening when they get home and he's cooked them dinner and they sit at a rickety table that they really should replace when they move and they tell him about their day. He cleans up and one of them will help out. Most often it’s Sakura, her work is draining but Naruto is practically rebuilding and improving a whole village, or dealing with all the paperwork at least. And it’s a _lot_ of paperwork.

It’s all very exhausting and he usually crawls straight into bed right after his short post-dinner bath. The sheets get a teeny bit damp and Sakura refuses to get in under the same blanket, wrapping herself in a second one to protect her from the dreaded ever-so-slightly damp spots. Sasuke kind of likes it. Naruto’s skin is still warm after a bath, even if he and Sakura have stayed up longer just talking or reading in each other's company. They always sleep in a big pile more or less, even when it's hot in summer because apparently not even the skin melting heat is enough to encourage the concept of personal space in a sleeping Naruto.

Life goes on like this for a long time and honestly it doesn't change much.

Sakura starts dating Ino a bit and Ino finds their arrangement a little weird at first but she comes to accept it, they last half a year before Sakura’s shifts at the hospital and her living arrangements with her boys becomes too much for Ino and they break it off. They split quite amiably, Ino understands that Team 7 have been through a lot together. That what they have is…it’s something else, and you just couldn’t (didn’t?) shit on it. But between the time she devoted to them and her crazy work schedule they never got to see one another. They still stare at each other across a room with that same attraction they had before, even when Ino somehow – it was quite a shock for everyone – ends up with Sai. It's a little sad, but Ino's still very happy and Sakura's happy for her too.

Hinata and Kiba had happened pretty quickly after the war and they've basically been married as long as Naruto’s been Hokage (a year or so), though the marriage part was mostly clan pressure. It was a very awkward day in the Team 7 household when Hinata and Kiba came to ask Naruto the favour they asked.

The gist of it was that Kiba was sterile – he was still kind of getting over the news at this point but handling as graciously as Kiba could – and there was no easy way to say they wanted Naruto to, uh...help out.

Sakura just kind of blushed and turned her head at the news and Sasuke did too from his perch against the kitchen bench, out of eyesight from where Kiba and Hinata sat for his own comfort. Naruto's brain was downright fried. He realised he'd never actually had sex with someone before in that moment and he was a little surprised how...unimportant it seemed to him. He'd spent his youth perfecting things like Sexy Jutsu after all. Kiba quickly jumped in to clear up that Naruto wouldn't have to have _sex_ with Hinata, and that they had ‘alternative methods’ at the hospital. It still wasn't any less embarrassing.

Naruto agreed nonetheless.

That night as they were lying in bed all together Sakura said something very sudden.

"I've always kind of wanted a kid” was just kind of thrown out there like an absent though as she stared up at the ceiling. Naruto and Sasuke were gawking at her at this.

"You mean...with-?"

She hadn't actually thought about having a kid with anyone in particular, but she supposed of it were to be with anyone, she'd choose one of them. The boys contemplated it a while. Sasuke was the one who said "why not" in the end, cue more gawking from Naruto.

They ended up staying awake late discussing the possibility of having a child together, as in all three of them. Briefly, it was mused how strange the situation was, that they were as if they were all in a relationship (Naruto blamed Sasuke’s new-found love of physical affection), but also not. That topic died quickly.

They were Team 7, they had been through hell and back together, they didn't need to excuse their love for each other seeming too romantic.

In the end it made sense to have a kid. Sasuke did want to revive his clan still, though originally that desire was less about having kids and more about absolving the dark shadows from the Uchiha legacy. He did a great job of that as a teenager. So yes, he supposed he did want a kid or two, and apparently so did Sakura. They decided it would be a good idea to try at about the same time as Hinata, and they were close to buying the house they wanted too, so they'd have the room.

Sasuke and Sakura trying to have a kid is really very awkward.

They try the more traditional approach a couple times, but the first time they forgot to tell Naruto, who walked in at completely the wrong time. The next few times it was just, too much. They couldn't do it together, not like that. Nudity wasn't exactly an uncommon thing in their household and they were fine with that, but touching each other sexually and stuff?

Gross.

Well, Sasuke found it gross. Sakura just couldn't deal with it being Sasuke. She could close her eyes and pretend it was Ino or some equally beautiful woman and she’d be fine, but Sasuke just couldn't do it at all. They gave up on that shortly after and Sakura asked around work about fertility options. They went with that and planned to start it after they'd moved.

Moving was quite easy, they didn't have a lot of furniture yet, the place felt rather empty compared to their tiny apartment from before. There was just so much space, and if it looked a little weird that they walked closer than necessary to pass each other in the kitchen or hallway, it probably was a little bit really, but they were used to the proximity, and it wasn't unpleasant.

Sakura started fertility treatments and Sasuke and Naruto both had to deal with their own sides of that, though Hinata started a few months later when Kiba _finally_ came back from a particularly gruelling extended diplomacy mission to several other nations.

Naruto and Sasuke are really protective of Sakura once she starts to show, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't absolutely love the royalty treatment.

Sakura takes leave when she starts getting too round and too heavy, Hinata comes over a lot and they chat about pregnancy things, Sasuke is now all too well informed about pregnancy and uterus-people woes and such.

Sasuke and Hinata actually get along quite well.

Hinata is as soft and kind as ever and Sasuke appreciates that she sincerely doesn't seem to judge him for his past misdemeanours. She's the first friend he's made besides Sakura and Naruto since coming back. Kiba of course follows suit, he didn't really hold too much of a grudge against Sasuke, he knew the guys story and he knew Sasuke had grown since then. It's not uncommon for Hinata and Kiba to join them for dinner now

It's hilarious when they find out a lot of their friends from the academy days have all apparently decided to have kids this year. When Sarada (yes, there was a long shouting match about the name) is born it is possibly the best day of Sasuke’s life, he'd created a tiny little breathing life instead of snuffing one out for once. She was an Uchiha, and he could tell already she was going to be a great one. He kind of wished his brother could see him now, holding his daughter.

Naruto is equally happy and proud. Sarada may not be biologically his, but he already loved her like his own. Which was the point, as Sakura had quite aggressively asserted that this kid would be just as much his as Sasuke and her’s. Sakura was pretty okay never ever going through childbirth ever again.

A few months later Boruto is born, there's a lot of um-ing and uh-ing about what to do about his last name. Hinata and Kiba both decide that he should be an Uzumaki, despite Naruto’s protests.

"He's _your_ child! He should have one of your names!"

"He's your child too, Naruto."

So Boruto Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha became a part of their big, convoluted family. All of a sudden they had a big, convoluted family to begin with. Kiba and Hinata were close, they wanted Naruto to see his son as much as possible. He was equally important as Boruto’s mother and pa. Boruto was brought over every weekend to play with his dad and Sarada.

Sakura had gone back to work fairly soon after she regained her energy, Sasuke taking care of Sarada at home. It was a bit of a learning curve, but he got there. He loved Sarada, she was a lovely child and she had such a personality already. He adored her so much.

When the kids are about a year old, Hinata and Sasuke take them out for walks together. It’s been a while and Sasuke mostly shrugs off the wary, judgemental looks with that steely resilience he once had as a kid. Hinata knows it gets to him sometimes, she does her best to help.

She’s pretty scary when someone looks at them the wrong way for more than a second, people learn to shove their shit.

They go on little shopping trips on their own when Kiba and Akamaru are home lazing around the house before their next mission and can mind all the kids. And yes, Akamaru plays an important role in keeping an eye on them.

Boruto has just turned two when Kiba and Hinata awkwardly ask for assistance in the child-making department again. It’s awkward as heck, but less so than the first time.

A while later Himawari is born. She gets the Hyuuga name. Kiba’s parents have a lot to say about this, but honestly he doesn’t mind. He lets his mother get to him at one point, and gets a little sad that he’ll never have kids ‘of his own’ but Hinata is always there to remind him that they _are_ his kids. That they’re just as much his as hers, that they just happen to have three parents. Kiba is so grateful for Hinata, she’s an angel really.

Their lives work like this now. Slowly more of their old friends come to accept Sasuke back, accept how he’s changed. Shikamaru probably took the longest to truthfully accept him back, but he’d bitten his tongue for a while out of trust in Naruto. They have gatherings with the kids running wildly after each other. Sasuke and Sakura and Naruto are just…them. Team 7. And it’s good.

Things…fit.

It’s a sunny afternoon out in the garden with Sarada when Sasuke lucidly realises this for the first time. He watches his daughter stumble after the ball he’s rolled to her, she’s smiling like nothing was ever wrong. And it wasn’t. Not for her.

Not yet.

It was a sobering thought, and yet Sasuke’s smile didn’t falter. He knew whatever happened, Sarada would have amazing people by her side, as would Boruto and Himawari, his honorary niece and nephew. He promised she’d grow up knowing that, _really_ knowing that. She wouldn’t be allowed to doubt the love of those around her.

Naruto and Sakura were both greeted by a strangely smiley Sasuke that night. Neither of them complained, though Naruto made sure to make a few cracks about his sunny disposition. Sasuke just rolled his eyes. He was loved, he was happy, he was home.

He was a fucking moron.

Back when he was young, to not see this right here in front of him. It was different now compared to back then, but it still shouldn’t have been so hard to see. Maybe he just hadn’t wanted to see? It didn’t matter anymore.

Sasuke tells them both that he loves them that night, climbing into bed. It’s the first time he’s said so in such direct words since…well.

They already know.


End file.
